<p>okay, so i guess my teacher thinks i have a pretty good chance of getting to national history day. i have state next saturday. right now i cant decide if i should try to improve my project or not. if i did make it to nationals, could i put that on a college application?</p>
<p>oh my goodness you're an 8th grader?? chill out, my friend...</p>
<p>but seriously, i actually have the same question and i'm a junior. i made nhd nationals for my essay as a 7th grader and i don't think it's a valid award for my college apps. if it comes down to it, i'll put it down at the end.</p>
<p>the experience was great though, and it definitely inspired my love for washington -- which has been a cornerstone of all of my summer experiences during high school, all of which were good essay fodder.</p>
<p>Actually, I have this same question too, and I'm a junior.</p>
<p>In seventh grade I went to National History Day and got second place in the country. In eighth grade, I got first place. I wouldn't put it on if it's just attending, but don't you think winning, twice, is kind of a a pretty big deal? I won over 1800 dollars through it. I don't have many awards on my application, and this is pretty prestigious. So...is there any way I can include this on my app without looking like I'm padding etc?</p>
<p>9th grade and up is generally what is considered by colleges... i guess it wouldnt hurt unless admission committees get annoyed with alot of extraneous information in your resume. an achievement in 8th grade is not what many people consider a "resume booster". Continue your passion with history into high school, and then you will get colleges to pay attention to your application.</p>
<p>BTW... your state of mind is not going to get you into anywhere as of yet. Doing things to get you into college DOES NOT get you into college. If you want to get to nationals, do it for the pride of saying to yourself "hey, i did a really good job", dont do it for some random person who is gonna read over your accomplishments for 10 minutes, and depending on his/her mood, you may get rejected anyways... do things you like, i say this way too much on CC, but it never gets through. Keep thinking like that, and you will be one of the hundreds who claim that because you had a 2100 SAT, 4.0, and ECs up the wazoo you should've been accepted to every college in the world. Hope you do, but likes are Adcoms will see right through your duplicity.</p>
<p>hey, cool, what state?
I started NHD in 8th grade as a class requirement for taking a 9th grade course, did Group Performance, got to nationals, placed 10th.
I'm currently in 10th grade and have gotten to nats every year, and plan on continuing NHD for the next 2 years, so I guess I could say on apps that I did it for 5 years [including 8th grade]...to show consistency or whatever. </p>
<p>and southeasttitan...curious; what category.</p>
<p>congrats for doing so well, guys!</p>
<p>my son is in 7th and this will be his second year making it to state -- he learned alot on how to improve last year, so he have high hopes for this year.</p>
<p>His category is junior individual exhibit -- any tips on what makes a really good (national quality) winning exhibit??</p>
<p>thanks!</p>
<p>My son also is a junior who attended nationals at NHD in seventh grade. He won one of the special prizes that went to someone either in the junior or senior division. Because he was in competition with high school students for this award, I figure it will be reasonable for him to list it in his applications.</p>
<p>It really tells you something about the high level of achievement of CCers that so many people who won at NHD in the same year are posting here!</p>
<p>"hey, cool, what state?" junior individual documentary, minnesota.</p>
<p>hsmomstef, a couple groups went to nationals from my school last year. i'd say they had outstanding topics and bibliographies--each had at least 2 interviews.</p>
<p>next year's theme is conflict and compromise =/ sounds like a lot of war-related topics.</p>
<p>In seventh grade, it was junior group documentary; eighth, group performance. </p>
<p>Oh, mj93, I'm also from Minnesota! I would say that getting to nationals in Minnesota is perhaps harder than in any other state, so if you do, consider that an accomplishment in itself. Plus, though it may not be worthy of going on your college application, nationals as part of the Minnesota delegation is an incredible experience. We are a tightly-knit group and you will make some great friends there; it's just fun to hang out with a bunch of kids that are just as smart--and often smarter--than you! Even getting to State is an accomplishment in Minnesota, so be happy no matter what! DON'T improve your documentary for the chance of putting it on your college application! Do it for the experience, of nationals, but also of working really hard. Between regionals and state in 7th grade, my partner and I worked harder than I have ever worked on anything before (up 'til 11 at least 3 nights a week editing) and it paid off--second in state, then second in the country! Whether you get to nationals or not, if you do work on it you will gain great experience and you'll have a lot of reasons to be proud.</p>
<p>Mj93, good luck on Saturday! Can you believe it's so soon? (I'm doing a senior individual performance this year; we're not hoping for nationals or anything because, with AP tests, we're not working on our project at all! So enjoy being able to work on it while you can :)...)</p>
<p>wow! .. congrats, southeasttitan. thanks for sharing!! i definately will take advantage of the time i have to work on it.</p>
<p>thanks for the info -- he has a great topic this year, I think -- independence and partition in India. He has 3 interviews -- unfortunately no primary source interviews. One is with the former ambassador to India, one with a top professor in British India and one with a Muslim from India who is 25 years old right now.</p>
<p>We noticed that last year interviews seemed key to making it to nationals.</p>
<p>hmmm -- conflict and compromise. sounds promising -- I will have him start brainstorming.</p>
<p>when we got 10th the theme was communication and our topic was FDR's fireside chats. We had interviews with an educational specialist on FDR and the Great Depression, two people who lived through the great depression and the son of a WWII veteran. We had a TON of amazing primary sources: actual, authentic newspapers from the time, actual ration cards and V-mails, etc. for our performance we got an antique radio as the center piece, and our backdrop was amazing...there were 3 panels, each with a poster from the time period that we got from the FDR museum and library that correlated with the major events of the time period we discussed and a place in the middle where we changed the date to match the scene. </p>
<p>My friend who did well at nationals last year had nearly 30 interviews for the topic Women in Politics. </p>
<p>This year we'll have about 4 interviews for states.</p>
<p>thanks -- he knows that interviews are important and will have more next year. This year was just too busy and being a typical 7th grader, he didn't make the time.</p>
<p>He does have a ton of primary resources, so he is covered there. He wanted to get an interview with someone who lived in southeast asia during partition, but he couldn't find anyone.</p>
<p>your entry sounds great!</p>
<p>The commonapp says to only put stuff from 9th grade onwards...so I guess not :-(</p>
<p>30 interviews, wow. i have 4 live interviews, 3 of which were taped, and another through email.</p>
<p>^yeah, she worked with this kid, who is basically insane.
haha. he wants to be a journalist....so....</p>
<p>I won nationals with 1 interview...</p>
<p>I really don't think having 4 interviews or having 30 will make or break your project. There's no place on the scoring sheet for judges to count "number of interviews," just "depth of research." If you can do in-depth research (which we did, we had over 80 legitimate sources) without interviews, then that's fine. It all depends on what kind of project you're doing.</p>
<p>thanks, southeasttitan! That is good to know. In my son's case, any other interviews would have been a waste of time. He did learn, last year at state, that having good, solid sources from a variety of points of view was important -- so he has his fingers crossed for state this year (it is in 2 weeks). Unfortunately, if he wins at State he will have trouble going to Nationals -- he will be in Europe until the 12th and the judging for Juniors is on the 11th. I guess if he makes it to Nationals, we will have to see if he could fly back a day earlier.</p>
<p>yeah, i have trip scheduled to washington dc during nationals, so it would work out perfectly.</p>
<p>thanks for the insight.</p>
<p>Mj93, how did you do? </p>
<p>We got fourth place; personally I think we were robbed, I cared very little about whether I got to nationals or not but I though the first place performance was mediocre at best. Ah well. </p>
<p>I was thinking of putting it like this on my app next year:</p>
<p>4th Place, Minnesota State History Day 2007, Senior Group Performance
1st Place, National History Day 2005, Junior Group Performance
2nd Place, National History Day 2004, Junior Group Documentary</p>
<p>Hmmm...</p>